arily transmissible, we must
see the principle of its actual transmission here; and that
has not yet been pointed out.

"LORD HERMAND.--We heard a little ago, my Lord, that there is
a difficulty in this case; but I have not been fortunate
enough, for my part, to find out where the difficulty lies.
Will any man presume to tell me that a Beetle is not a
Beetle, and that a Louse is not a Louse? I never saw the
petitioner's Beetle, and what's more I don't care whether I
ever see it or not; but I suppose it's like other Beetles,
and that's enough for me.

"But, my Lord, I know the other reptile well. I have seen
them, I have felt them, my Lord, ever since I was a child in
my mother's arms; and my mind tells me that nothing but the
deepest and blackest malice rankling in the human breast
could have suggested this comparison, or led any man to form
a thought so injurious and insulting. But, my Lord, there's
more here than all that--a great deal more. One could have
thought the defender would have gratified his spite to the
full by comparing the Beetle to a common Louse--an animal
sufficiently vile and abominable for the purpose of
defamation--[_Shut that door there_]--but he adds the epithet
_Egyptian_, and I know well what he means by that epithet. He
means, my Lord, a Louse that has been fattened on the head of
a _Gipsy or Tinker_, undisturbed by the comb or nail, and
unmolested in the enjoyment of its native filth. He means a
Louse grown to its full size, ten times larger and ten times
more abominable than those with which _your Lordships and I
are familiar_. The petitioner asks redress for the injury so
atrocious and so aggravated; and, as far as my voice goes, he
shall not ask it in vain.

"LORD CRAIG.--I am of the opinion last delivered. It appears
to me to be slanderous and calumnious to compare a Diamond
Beetle to the filthy and mischievous animal libelled. By an
Egyptian Louse I understand one which has been formed on the
head of a native Egyptian--a race of men who, after
degenerating for many centuries, have sunk at last into the
abyss of depravity, in consequence of having been subjugated
for a time by the French. I do not find that Turgot, or
Condorcet, or the rest of the economists, ever reckoned the
combing of